BRITAIN'S NEED

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 38, 13 August 1921, Page 7

BRITAIN'S NEED

NEW POLITICAL LEADERS !

LLOYD GEORGE LOSING GROUND

SDS PHILIP GIBBS'S OPINIONS.

In a special message to the Springfield Republican, Sir Philip Gibbs- reviews the political situation in,/ Britain. In a previous message he had referred to German industry and the determination of the German people to pay the indemniWe*, if it is humanly possible, by an intense development of exports, and this subject, he says, has been discussed :by big financial men in England not •without anxiety. Tile speech of Reginald M'Kenna, former Chancellor of the Exchequer, reaching exactly the same conclusions, and showing that if Germany pays that way British trade will be de-' stroyedj,. to say nothing of American trade) has awakened publio ' interest to the new danger which had not been -realised before by simple souls, They ate now farced, he says, by the grotesque paradox, that' when they shouted, "Make Germany pay," they were clamotrfing for their own industrial ruin.

Mr. M'Kenna's suggestion that Germany should be made to pay in raw materials Would hot help 1 England, because in coal we already have raw material ■which we could not sell.at present prices ..jeven if our miners' would consent to work again. , • I -see only one way out of the dilemma of Gei'man indemnities which presents us with a choice between, two evils —payment by overwhelming competition and nonpayment with Allied '\va,r debts still iburdenmg our peoples. The way out is by economic arrangement with Germany ty Great Britain, France, and the Unit--«d States which will balance imports ■With exports and raise the value of the German mark to Germany cannot undersell tho world at exchange rates. How that is to be done I am not sufficient of an expert to devise, bitf it ought not to pass the -wit of men. NEED FOR CO-OPERATION. .Even Fiance's statesmen are beginning to realise that co-operation with German labbtir and industrial organisations. may be better policy than the mere extraction of tribute from Germany, thereby continually developing its resources ill the world's markets at the expense of Franoe. The iron ore of Lorraine needs the coal from Westphalia, and the other way about. ' Discussions held between Dr.* Walter B-ithenau and Louis Loucheur, Ministers of Reconstruction in Germany, and France respectively, may. result in an economic compact of great importance ■to both countries, and may serve the cause of common sense, in its victory over passion. If thie succeeds, it will be the tfifst step forward in n new policy in Europe, whioh mast prevail as the one escape from armed aggression, namely, an economic -union of interests by which iraw materials and all natural resources shall be exchanged and developed beitween the countries, and according to their respective needs and industrial. po- . itentialities. This new policy, of -replacing ,tne rivalry of races by economic interdepend' ence is only beginning to glimmier.in the ©Id men's brains—old, tired men,, who still cling to the power of old traditions -r-but the pressure of national forces and ■urgent perils are shaping that .way; More thara that, it is common arithmetic which is going to dictate the high policy; Domestic and -foreign affairs will utterly lie controlled as far as Great Britain is <!onoerned by such cimple sums as four ifrom. six leaves two, and fourinto three iwon't go. EXPLODED SCHEMES. Far instance, Winston Churchill's Wmaatio dreams of irrigating Mesopotamia, so that the Garden of Eden may again blossom forth from tho desert siindß, have been rudely shattered! by unkind critics, who point out that money sent to Arab wastes means so much less in English pockets, at a time when tax collectors are searching our trousera for the last threepenny-bit, in order to pay doles to unemployed! men. Mr. Ohtichflrs imperial arithmetic simply won't work. As a subtraction sum it is jeered at by the whale school. So again, with the help to the Greeks in a new campaign against Turkey. There are groups of political gentlemen in England not ■ altogether' ignorant of finance who would like us to support King Oomstantine and the Greek army with nrnriitions of war for certain rewards hitherto not specified. But other financial experts, and the man in the first street who does most . of the paying and most of the dying, when it comes to war j are protesting with no uncertain Voice that what they need is not a Greek war, but something off the British inoome tax. That is not quite so simple as it looks. There is a possibility of grave trouble ahead, in which British troops may be involved. "I saw that peril looming ahaad when I went to Greece and Turkey last ymur, and then to Asia Minor. The situation in Constantinople wasn't very reassuring even then. Every Turk in the city on the Golden Horn was at heart ft Nationalist, hating every: British soldier boy as an enemy of Allah and his prophet, and conspiring to give help to Mustapha Kemal Pasha, the Tnrk leader in Asia Minor, who is raising the banner of. Islam in defiance of the Sultan, who is a puppet in -our hands. A few battalions of British boys and a few warships in the 1 Bosphorus held Constantinople for the Allied Powers, but our troops could do no more than demonstrate on the fringe of the Asiatic I shore, blow a fow bugles, lioiet a fta", and dtepart when the Turkish bands approached too close. They came close enough to plant batteries within range of tho Dardanelles, but then withdrew when the Greek army, under ordws from Venizelos, broke the Turkish line in the hinterland of Smyrna. Since then many things have hapivmed. The Greek soldiers have their king again, but still no peace and precious little trade. Mnstapha Kemal Pasha has gathered strength again. The Turkish Nationalists have linked •with the Russian Bolshevists in Georgia, on the eastern side of Asia MinorAas well as with the Bolsheviks in the Black Sea ports. They are getting arms and ammunition from Russia and they pledge their .faith to get back Smyrna ,and Thrace from the Greeks and to restore liberty to the Sultan in Constttntinople. BRITAIN LOOKS INWARD. . Meanwhile Franco and Italy are prcM'urk because of trade interests a,ud political dislike pi- Greek power in the Mediterranean., Gieece, therefore, looks to .Great Britain as her only champion, and Britain, outsido the foreign Office and certain trading houses, looks not at all toward the Greek isles and the city of minarets, where the Golden Horn flashes like a curved scimitar, but stares inward at her own State, where' the. coalfields are still idle and the factory chimneys no longer smoke and millions of her'working men lounge about while their leaders call for further strikes. I am rather uneasy about that situation in the Near East, for it is a danger spot between the East and West, which for centuries has been a cockpit of war and massacre, and the cause for conflicts ,with Constantinople as the devilish

temptation. Sentimentally lam all for the Greeks, but this is no time for sentiment, and the troubles at home are too serious for any adventures abroad.

British Labour is still putting up a stubborn fight against a reduction in wages, and our great industrial cities are silent and smokeless. Long continuance of the coal strike is leading us toward a precipice over which all hopes of regaining *our old prosperity Will be dashed to pieces. Every factory is being starved of its vital needs, and every trade is grievously injured. The mental attitude of the men is simple enough, as I have explained before. They are not out for revolution, though rfevolntionary agitator's are aitlong theta. They are struggling to maintain the standard of life to which they were lifted up during the war and to , get a fair margin beyond the bare necessities for some of the fun of life and some of its little luxuries.

That is legitimate enough. I sympathise with them heartily. But ■ whereas their hopes for thi3 margin might have been fulfilled before the f war, they ai'o impossible o£ lattiaifo-1 ment after the war, now Jtha.t our-- old customers cannot afford to buy «t our .prices, t The policy of the British workingman has come sharp tip agaitfeit arithmetical realities, jitet a* tlie foreign policy of our Imperialists has done. Unfortunately the Labour leaders, who are perfectly aware htw these arithmetical sums work out, have not dared to tell tlieiv men. Having led thorn on to strike action by false jtfotnisss, they are now afraid to disillusion them. DO NOT DARE TELL TRUTH. They haven't told them, for instance,! that many of the poorer mines will liefer be reopened because it no longer pays to work them, and thousands of miners will, be unemployed even if they agree to accept lower -wages. They haven't told these men especially in South. Wales, that no foreign . countries are willing to bity Welsh' export coal at anything lika present) prices; so, however they work, there is no chance whatever of the desiredl margin foT- the fun,of life. The painful trrith is that poverty and hard work" must bo the rule of Englishlife, not -luxury arid, light- work. Thia j fact is not yet being taught our men by their leaders. . What is wanted is courageous leadership, which will strip reality of all illusion and bring irien face to face witJi the stftrn necessity for harder Work, with longer houvs and less wages, instead of indulging them in their present belief that by' political -pressure they may have lighter Work, shorter hours, 'and move wages. . The Geitaan people, taught by de- j feat, are facing this necessity- with, resolution and energy 1. They don't like it. but they know the alternative is ruin and starvation. That alterative is the ,same in Great Britain. There is no other way for recovery. As --T mentioned in my last article, the German workers are toiling for ninepence an hour, whereas British workers are slacking for two to three shillings an houri That arithmetic dote not work out in terms of wealth for British trade. : • TROUBLES ACCUMULATING. Meanwhile the British Government is ; getting into hot water, because, of its ■ refusal to grapple With 'the financial ■ situation by severe economics, and a ■ policy of ppaDe, reconciliation, andi re- ] construction within its power. Premier Lloyd George- is losing his grip ucon the political machinery aiidi publio opinion. I was told in the Unit-ed'-'Staiisa that at the time of the Presidential election the question put Was not; "Aire you against the League of Nations?" but,. "Axe you sick ftfid tired of the present administration)?" The answer was, "By go&h, w© ate." The same question'is being asl^ed iiu English boroughs, aiid the same answer is being made on all sides. I must adV mit, however, that those gentlemen who /are winnig seal? from Mr.' Lloyd George's coalition, and who are callingthemselves "anti-waste" candidates) are playing' a game of humbug with the man in the street. v .— They are mostly reactionaries of the Tory cast, whose idea of "anti-waste" is not a policy of equal sacrifice by all classes for the sake of the common weal, but is to safeguard their own property and profits with Labour beaiten to its knees, and tamed into the acceptance of starvation v/ageo. 'That kind of is only going to lead to trouble. England, like most other countries in j tlie world, cries out for some new nobility, for^ leadership with a 'farreaching vision of statesmanship which wilr inspire _ all classes with a Common zeal for national service as strong as in time of war, but which directed'to purposes of police. So far the first cry is unanswered 1, but_ somewhere or other this new leader is biding his time. In some cradle of life ha is twiddling his toes, perhaps.